I work front desk at a hotel that mostly hosts events. It was late at night, the lobby was dead quiet, and I was enjoying a peaceful shift. Big mistake. We only had one event going on, a big corporate event in one of our largest ballrooms, around 450 guests.

Suddenly one of the elevators opened and a group of women came rushing out, screaming and running like they were escaping a cartoon villain. A few seconds later, the cartoon villain himself stepped out of the same elevator and walked straight to my desk.

He told me he couldn't remember which event he was attending. Easy one: I let him know we only had one event that night and pointed him in the right direction.

Instead of leaving, he decided to share some information I absolutely did not ask for. He proudly told me he had been getting "very friendly" with the ladies upstairs, that they were driving him crazy, and then he started sniffing his own hand like it was a fine wine.

Then he reached that same hand toward my face so I could "experience it" too.

I leaned back so fast I think I set a personal record and said, "I understand, sir." I was alone at the desk, so my priority was keeping him calm until he walked away.

Completely unbothered, he asked me how much our rooms cost. When I told him, he looked genuinely horrified… and went back to sniffing his hand for emotional support, I guess.

Then came attempt number two. Hand toward my face again. I politely declined (again) and gave him the most neutral "you're right, sir, women are very beautiful" of my career.

He then marched back upstairs to the event, loudly announcing to everyone that he loves women.

The second he was out of sight, I picked up the phone and kindly asked my beloved security team to escort the gentleman off the property.

Its post audit time, which means it time for the late night Patels to reach out. In this case, it’s a new one on me since I’ve been out of the loop for a while - man calling to say there will be a fire safety inspection on Friday but wants me to check the expiration date on the extinguishers near me. It would almost be a legit sounding pass along if it weren’t immediately post audit. My question is, what exactly are they trying to scam for? Obviously I hung up on them, but since it’s not immediately about money or safe inspections or packages, not sure what the goal is. Maybe claim we have fines?

People who put request to check in at 1pm (when the official check-in time is 3pm) and then chastise the FDA when they don’t have the room ready at the requested time… why? FDAs like me merely only do check-in and check-out. I have no control over what room will be inspected first, and the only response I’ll get from my housekeeping if I ask for the room to be ready now will be “please communicate in the manager’s group” of which I am not a participant. No, I will not go up myself to clean the room for you. It’s not my task.

Calling the FD manager over will also not magically cause your room to be ready instantly like in a snap.

Seriously, what part of “subject to availability“ do you not understand???

Do you expect all of the management including the GM to not give up your room to other guests just because you edited the arrival time the night before to arrive at 1pm instead of 3pm?

Background: I have two jobs. One where I work one day a week at a Myatt, and one where I work two days a week at a Frampton. The Myatt has its own issues, but this post is all about the Frampton.

I am their part-time night auditor. In the six months I have worked there, I have missed ONE day of work, and I gave weeks of advance notice about the medical procedure that necessitated it. I come in slightly early every day, guests usually like me a lot, I learned Pop in a matter of minutes, I'm safety-and-security minded, I've adapted to all sorts of changes in expectations and procedures, I've even come in during my off time to train other employees. No substance abuse, no sleeping on the job, no altercations with co-workers, none of the usual pit traps. For a part-time auditor, I am unicorn levels of rare, and I know it.

-----

Cast of characters: (all names changed)

Me - Me

Roy - Employee with whom I've had some issues in the past, but they've shown steady improvement.

Manuel - Brand new employee! This was their first day on the job.

Tiny - Former front desk associate, now front desk supervisor. Really nice guy, until...?

Ronaldo - New GM. Still never met him.

-----

Last night was one of the worst nights I've ever had at the Frampton. I come in - slightly early, as I always am - to discover the lobby packed with people sitting around with their luggage. Bad omen, but I ignore the little devil on my shoulder telling me to turn right around and go back home and instead wade into the fray. Manuel is at the front desk, but Roy is nowhere to be found. Realizing that we're in a pretty bad situation and the new guy is at the front desk with no backup, I quickly clock in and get onto a computer, and ask him what's going on.

We were supposed to have five housekeepers scheduled for that day. Well, two of them called out sick, and apparently management chose that day to let another one go. This leaves us with two housekeepers for the entire day. They do their best to turn over as many rooms as possible - Roy later tells me that they turned over 25 rooms each - but ultimately, this leaves us without enough clean rooms to cover our arrivals.

What management should have done: Hire enough housekeepers that we have backup for this sort of situation.
What management did instead: Nothing.

What management should have done: Contact some of our sister properties and see if we could borrow a housekeeper or two for an emergency.
What management did instead: Nothing

Please keep in mind that this was during the morning, so management had all day to resolve these issues. Our PM shift employee, Roy, spent several hours training Manuel. This employee has experience in cleaning rooms (as we'll come to later in the story), but he's instead stuck at the front desk for three hours doing training. Note that he is not a supervisor, and Tiny and Ronaldo are on the property.

What management should have done: Having come to the realization that they would not have enough clean rooms to accommodate all the guests, immediately close off inventory to prevent new reservations.
What management did instead: Exactly this...at 8:30p at night, long after the damage was already done.

What management should have done: Tiny or Ronaldo comes to the front to train Manuel, Roy goes and cleans some rooms for a few hours.
What management did instead: Sat in their office.

Now we're in a situation where we're definitively oversold. Management has already dropped the ball on several fronts, both before the situation emerged and afterward. Still, there are things that can be done to alleviate the problem, ways to take the edge off and make sure that our guests are taken care of.

What management should have done: Contact the vendors for the third-party pre-paid rooms and advise them to redirect their arrivals to a nearby hotel because of the oversell situation.
What management did instead: Nothing.

What management should have done: Contact nearby hotels to find vacancies so that we can walk guests that are either non-members or low-level members.
What management did instead: Nothing. I know, because I did that...and if you're leaving your walk calls for audit shift, that's a fail.

What management should have done: Contact guests to let them know that we had some room disruptions and advise them of the situation.
What management did instead: Nothing.

Right around now, you're probably starting to see a pattern. Management had all day - they were present on the property, they had the time they needed, and they weren't that busy - to take any of a number of different actions that COULD have helped out, but they just couldn't be bothered. They let it all roll downhill and land on the PM and Audit shifts. And if you think guests weren't chewing us out - being rightfully upset that their reservations weren't being honored and nobody told them until after they arrived - then you don't really know guests.

Roy stayed three and a half hours after the end of his shift - until 1:30 AM - and missed his bus to get home so that he could clean enough rooms so the majority of our arrivals could eventually get into a room. Some of them were waiting literally for hours, but it was the best we could do, and Roy would've been 100% within his rights to just walk out and let it sit. Manuel stuck it out like a champ and helped Roy where he could while I held down the fort at the front. We had a lot of very angry people - including Carbon members who were waiting an insane amount of time for their room - but we managed to pull management's butts out of the fire.

So, there we go. Big Damn Heroes, right?

Yeah, about that...

I wake up today to a Whatsapp message from Tiny informing me that I am receiving a FORMAL COACHING. And why?

- The front desk had a water bottle left sitting on it. It was there when I got there, and I didn't touch it because of the massive mess we had.

- Water bottles hadn't been complete for HHonorables. This is after me informing Tiny that - due to my disability (MS with a side order of scoliosis), I needed water positioned in a place where I wasn't having to bend down to touch my toes and lift an extremely heavy crate of water. This is also not a responsibility that has been placed on anyone else.

- The front desk drawer was unlocked. Note: I'm not even sure if it DOES lock at all. It's never been brought up in the past, and if it does lock, I don't know where the key is. This is also not a responsibility that has been placed on anyone else.

- My shift report did not have my name on it. This has never been a requirement in the past, has never been brought up to me before, and - you guessed it - this is also not a responsibility that has been placed on anyone else.

Considering everything that's been going on over the last 24 hours, I asked to set up a meeting with Tiny and Mac - the owner - to discuss the issue, only to be told that Mac is not available. I am not at all surprised that Mac is "not available", as I think he might have some very loud things to say if he found out that his hotel was being run in this way. (As it is, they just ran off our sales manager, who was no longer willing to put up with Tiny and Ronaldo and their crap.)

What management should have done: Thank me and Roy and Manuel for cleaning up their mess.
What management did instead: Come at me over a bunch of irrelevant crap

What management should have done: Appreciate their employees.
What management can do instead: Kiss the fattest part of my ass. I'm seeking other employment. Anybody need a part-time auditor they don't have to worry about?

So this is something that actually happened to me once upon a time and it’s too perfect not to share.

I was pulled away from the front desk to help serve for a very large wedding at the hotel I worked at. It’s so big that the reception is in a large tent in the parking lot rather than our banquet rooms and we had to carry out the food on trays from the kitchen.

As I’m carrying out a tray of salads trying to keep my footing on some rocks I walk by a guest from the wedding. In his left hand he’s holding a beer, in the right he’s holding a baby. As I go by he calls out to me.

“Careful not to drop those”

I look back at him and with a smile say.

“I could say the same to you sir”

He smirks back at me, raises his left hand and says.

“Don’t worry, I get free refills”

Perfect. No notes.

100% true exchange today.

Guest: "Excuse me, I'm going on a sightseeing tour today, where would they pick up? (shows me confirmation of said tour that says "Pick up: (our hotel) (time)"

Me: The tour pickups would be right there (gesture). This hotel has only one main entrance and driveway.

Guest: (looks where I pointed) I want to know where they will pick up.

Me: (politely gestures again) All drop offs and pickups at our hotel are right there at the driveway outside the doorway right there.

Guest: No, you're not answering my question. I'm going on a tour and I need to know where the bus will pick me up.

Me: The bus is going to come into that driveway right there sir.

Guest: Ugh, fine, I guess I'll have to ask someone else. (storms off)

Me: (exchanges very confused glance with coworker who saw and heard the whole exchange)

I hate, nay, ABHOR, the 'open-concept' lobby design. Pods, terminals, hubs; whatever term you choose. Having individual desks with gaps in between rather than one large pillar feels far too invasive, especially for the many folks who have 0 skill points for 'Social Awareness.'

My lobby features three desks with a fairly large gap in between. Easy for when someone wants to hand over their luggage for a bag drop, but awful in every other regard. To add to the aesthetic and provide what should be a subconscious cue to guests, there are thin, long plant vases square in the middle of the gaps.

I've lost count of the number of folks who've simply squeezed themselves around the edge of the desk in order to peek over to the screen or "hear us better."

One bloke the other day wanted me to add his Loyalty number at check-in. The thing is, the reservation was under his wife, and she already had a number. He already made a small scene about fetching her from the car, and now he was adding to his list of infractions.

After I told him I had her number attached, he asked, "Really?" and then squeezed himself around to come and look at my screen. He did it so quickly, I didn't even have an opportunity to react. Thankfully, it was only for a few moments. He shuffled back and then asked, "Well, how many points does she have?" I didn't have the balance readily available and told him so. He pressed on, asking me to replace it. However, thoroughly wanting to be done with this interaction, I told him I couldn't.

Technically that was true--our system kicks and screams when it comes to trying to replace a number on a confirmed reservation. Thus, I wasn't willing to spend time undoing and redoing all of that; I just wanted him gone.

Surprisingly, he didn't put up much more of a fuss after that, and he and his Mrs. whisked themselves away moments later. Nevertheless, it was reconfirmed to me how annoying I find this desk setup, and it seems to be pretty run-of-the-mill across the industry.

I've had folks get annoyed when asked to go back to their side of the desk, as if it's a personal affront that you're not 6 inches away from the staff. Bad enough we're standing like poles all day; I don't need to rub shoulders with you too.

I just had the most miserable final 15 minutes of my shift in a very long time.

We have 4 weddings in-house today, 3 of which occurred today and all came back between 9-10:30pm.

I checked in a lady who was clearly drunk (she couldn’t stop hiccuping) into a King Suite.

I thought nothing of it, there was a man at her side and a small group hovering behind her. Thought it was just the two of them.

About 10 minutes later, another woman calls from that room and is very upset because they booked a room with Two Queens and they don’t have it.

I apologized and said that I would send security up with a rollaway and extra bedding for the pullout couch.

Essentially she was refusing my solutions, saying she’s “not trying to be a bitch”, demanding a refund, to be switched to a different room, etc. etc. which of course I explained I do not have the authority to give out refunds and we are fully booked so I can’t give them a different room. If she wants a refund she can speak to someone in the morning. She’s not getting it.

I looked back into the audit log of the reservation and it was, in fact, booked as a Two Queen Standard but my coworker just decided to switch it out for a King Suite because I knew the inventory wasn’t balanced as of yesterday.

So, now I’m pissed off because the protocol is that you’re supposed to call guests and see if they’d like to be swapped. Clearly that wasn’t the case here or else I wouldn’t be in this situation.

I thought that was the end of the situation until a different woman and a different guy came to the front desk, basically rehashing the whole situation.

They claimed that there is no pullout couch and I corrected her, saying that all 4 of them tried to open it and they couldn’t do it. (FYI - our pullout couches are brand new and SOME of them have never been opened so they’re stapled shut. I thought that was the case but no….they’re all drunk idiots who’ve never seen a pullout couch before.)

Let’s just say I went back and forth between them for well over 5 minutes, repeating myself constantly that I cannot just give them what they want. We are completely sold out, everyone has checked in, I cannot issue a refund, I am giving them the options for a pullout couch AND a rollaway bed. At this point, there’s no use in saying that this was our fault because it would’ve just made the situation a whole lot worse and there’s literally NOTHING I can do.

She used the whole “We’ve been members for Tilton for years” and I told her we are not a Tilton property. She argued that we were. I said no, the brand is IGH. She said Shmoliday Inn is a part of Tilton and has been for years and that it’s the same brand………..To an employee of 3 years at an IGH property. Okay.

They’re demanding I get a manager on the phone and I refused that no one will answer at 11pm on a Saturday night only for them to give the same exact answer I’m giving them.

The lady did all the talking. She was nasty, insistent and literally just not fucking getting it. She’s confused why I can’t give her a room that someone is checked into.

It got to a point where I said if my options were not satisfactory then they were more than welcome to leave. The conversation was not being productive, their expectations were beyond impossible and my alternatives were being refused. It was literally like a broken record talking to a brick wall.

I guess once they heard that they just said “fine, as long as someone can go to the room RIGHT NOW”.

Okay, cool.

I call over my security at the same time as my Night Auditor (both men btw, I’m a woman) was about to clock in. I grabbed them both and explained what was going on.

My Night Auditor after clocking in, approached them at the desk while I stood out of view and listened. They explained everything to him and guess what?

He said the exact. same. thing. I told them. AND THEY WERE A LOT MORE CHILL WITH HIM??

I don’t know if they thought I grabbed a manager or it was some sort of misogynistic thing but I was so fucking pissed off.

I hate drunk people so much.

I came in after someone who doesn't answer the online chat for the hotel.

I reached out to the chats that were opened at 4 pm:

Hi, I'm the night auditor. Has anyone answered you offline?

Fast-forward to 3:51 A.M.!!!!:

Mad guest: No one answered, and I'm mad

Me: Thank you for responding. I will bring up the towels & tissue you asked for

I go up... I knock once. 3 raps and a call that I'm front desk.

No one answers, so I leave the stuff. I go back to the front desk and leave the message that no one answered, but the items are there.

Mad guest: because it's 4 in the morning and we have to leave in the morning! I'm calling guest services

Me: I apologize that I was the first person to address your issues. I have forwarded this conversation to my GM.

I swear... some people just want to complain about everything 🙄

I have had the good fortune of never having a guest die in any of the hotels I’ve worked in while I was working there.

This was the closest I’ve ever come to it.

I was working at a long term stay hotel and we had this guest who was a pretty old and pretty frail. He had been staying for several months.

One of his daily routines was coming down to the lobby and working on the business center computer for an hour or so.

On this particular evening I was working with another agent and we noticed that the elderly gentleman was taking longer than usual at the computer…. And he wasn’t moving at all…

We call out to him. no response. I get closer to him. Still sitting upright hand on the mouse dead still.

After exchanging a terrified glance with the other front desk agent at the desk I finally lightly shake his shoulder and the guest finally woke up from whatever deep sleep.

Glad he was okay he went back up to his room and I went back to the office and put my head on the desk for a few minutes.

I had a military guest and his wife come up to the desk with beers from our store. It was past midnight, and I couldn’t sell them, and told them as much. Honestly, I shouldn’t have had to tell him though because he’s been staying with us for a little over two months at this point, so he knows the rule. But his wife is visiting him for the next week (found that out from another desk agent afterwards) and she's adamant that she wants some. Well, sorry, no beer for you. They start walking away and I hear him tell her that it’s no problem that they’ll just go to a liquor store. Another guest had already walked up to the desk, so I can’t stop them in order to tell them that there’s another problem in store for them...

In my state, all liquor stores closed at 9 pm.

Well, maybe ten minutes later they come storming back into the lobby, completely pissed off saying that I lied to them. I ask them to calm down, which they don't. Instead they start screaming that the Uber driver told them that we have to sell until 2 am because that's what the state law says. I tell them that they're mistaken. That what state law actually says is all alcohol says must stop at 2 am, but that were NOT obligated to sell until 2 am. As a private business, we can choose to stop selling alcohol at any hour we choose, and we've chosen to stop at midnight. That's when they both start yelling once again about what the Uber driver told them and I cut them off and tell them very bluntly -- their Uber driver is NOT an employee of the hotel, and therefore whatever he told them means absolutely nothing to me.

At this point the wife starts cursing at me and then throws me the finger before storming off. I look at her husband and let him know that I'll be informing the managers about his and his wife's behavior and they'll decide if she can stay on property during her visit. I'm pretty sure they'll also inform the base about his behavior but I'm less certain on that. Suddenly his tone changes and he's very apologetic. I made good on what I him I'd do and I told the OM and the GM what happened. I don't usually wish for a guest (or their guest in this case) to be told they have to go, but I'll make an exception in this case.

Husband just came home from a work trip in Chicago. He proceeded to tell me a story about how his coworker took several 6 packs of beer from the pantry and wrote an email to the front desk to charge his room because there wasn’t an employee at the desk. This happened at 1am and I believe most hotels cannot sell alcohol after midnight.

I was horrified and gave him an earful because I fear the employee must have gotten into trouble. The next morning he said there was a huge sign posted in the pantry about alcohol sales.

My question is, what repercussions do you think would happen to the hotel employee?

I’m sick to my stomach thinking someone got fired over this.

(First off I want to say the only people that gets my rate are the people I would trust my house key and motorcycle key too. And rn thats only one person my domestic partner! Thats ny philosophy when it comes to the FAF and Employee rate: "Would I trust this person with my house/motorcycle key?")

We all know when we are checking in our fellow FDA's. They are the ones that say "Yeah thats fine", or "As long as it's not an inconvenience to you."

But then you get the FAF or the people who are not FDA's who use the Employee rate cuz they are a siblings or partner or parent who act like they get everything because of this special exclusive rate.

Ive called managers and gone through portals having not only the family's status and use of the rate taken but that of the Employee too cuz it is on them to explain how the rate and policies are supposed to be done.

Tonight one such lucky recipient will lose their member status and most likely the family member, the one that works at the property, will get a talking to. This employee's family member was spamming our chat system, GXP, and every new chat was demanding, not requesting, DEMANDING, complimentary items (toothbrush, toothpaste, towels, blankets, etc....) so I finally laid down the law and told to stop spamming the chap with "tequests". They happened to answer, verbatim, "WE are the guests and WE can request any fucking thing we want!!" Cool. Emailed my GM, AGM and Scharriott Guest services their response. Got into the Portal and now they will lose their pyrite tier status and and found out who the employee is and emailed their GM with the screenshots. (I won't ask the GM to educate their employee on how the rate works cuz its not my place.) But the guest WILL definitely be losing their status amd thats good enough for me.

It just amazes me how people think paying a lesser rate and that their family/friend that works at a hotel means they get to be demanding. Do thwy think we think they are one of us? Or that it's like having the super shiny deluxe premium member status? 95% of the time if you have that rate expect expect to be put in a room thats like the one you booked but not quite. Ive booked rooms with my rate and gotten it right next to the highway, but there are time I get comp upgraded. Mainly it's the attitude you present when checking in. But i dont expect the upgrade and I understand I may get the room by the highway near the elevator and stairs. Im paying the least about of money and the only have to give me the room type.

But all in all, if you are rhe friend or the family member to a hotel employee remember you represent them and you dont deserve jack shit if you have a shit attitude.

High level member came in demanding we give him a comp upgrade into a suite.

First thing that made him upset was not responding to his chat quickly. Understandable. But once the FDA did respond and let him know that we unfortunately did not have any suites available it was, "get your manager" from there. Full clarity here, we are not stingy on upgrades. If you ask and it's available, we are more than happy to do it.

He gets to the property and is still demanding the upgrade that isn't available. He shoves a screenshot from 3 hours previously in our faces of the suite availability(wasn't available all day so not sure how it would've been online tbh.) We check the website at that point and the only availability it showed was a standard room. He claims he called us 9 times and we never picked up the phone. We look through our call log, nothing. He calls our phone in front of us...phone doesn't ring. Not sure why his call doesn't come through as we had been getting calls throughout the day, and we had a call come in during this interaction.

He then says, "Just check me into MY suite already." We fight the urge to tell him we would've done so by now if we could, just to get him to leave us alone. We explain we cannot boot someone else out of the suite THEY BOOKED, because they are also a high level member. (However, we had already upgraded him to the next best room.) "Well is that level higher than me?" Yes actually.

Continues on with the usual spiel of "I stay here all the time, this is extremely unacceptable, I'm a high level member" etc. We offer extra points to honestly just get him to walk away he says "You can give me 5,000 extra points" yep we can do that "actually what am I thinking give me 50,000 points" sure thing. Whatever will get you the hell away from us at this point.

Mind you this 30 minute interaction is all over a ONE NIGHT STAY....

Checks out the next morning and says "I look forward to seeing what I was promised yesterday."

Haven't had such a frustrating experience in a while and needed to rant 😭

We have a little utility cart we call the trash wagon or trash cart because we use it exclusively to haul trash. I don't think I posted about the first time it got stolen. Long story short, trash wagon disappeared, we checked the cameras and saw a guy swap his stolen shopping cart for it and fucked off. However on the camera we also saw that he dropped a piece of paper. It was pandemic times so we were bored and had nothing to do so we found the paper, and it was a receipt with his fucking phone number on it. Why? who knows, but there it was. So the owner called him and cussed him out, guy cussed back and claimed he thought it was trash and that's why he took it. But after being threatened with the police he brought it back.

Fast forward to last Friday. I came in at 1 for my shift and caught the tail end of the GM just having bounced a room of crack heads after their friend who was going to pay for another night never showed up. Shocker I'm sure. One of them came up to the night window and I gestured for the front door because I hate using the night window but she was smoking and insisted on me coming to the window instead.

As I approached and the cigarette stink wafted through the drawer of the night window I noticed the handle of a wagon in her hand. Remembering the brief disappearance of our wagon from a few years ago, I checked to make sure that it wasn't our wagon she was about to abscond with, but it wasn't. It was a cheap cloth one rather than our metal one. But apparently I was having some kind of a premonition.

A couple hours later our handy man/groundskeeper comes in looking confused. He explains via google translate that the trash cart has gone missing. Feeling a sense of deja vu, we hopped on the security cameras and saw that about a half hour after they left, one of the crack heads had come back and stole the fucking wagon! From the same spot it was stolen the last time! Nothing about this spot suggests that the wagon might be up for grabs, for the record. It's just outside the back door to where the laundry and utility rooms are. Clear on the other side of the building from where the dumpster is.

This time no clues to their whereabouts were dropped out of pockets this time, so the GM hopped in her car and went to scope out all the usual homeless hangouts, but no dice. We accepted that the wagon was gone for good this time.

Today I went down to the housekeeping storage room to get some more toilet paper and to my shock, the door knob fell off in my hand. That part isn't relevant, but it happened and was funny. I still managed to open the door, and was surprised again to see the trash cart there. I was fairly certain it was the same one. It was dingy and yellow in all the same ways. I texted the owner, first about the door, then about the cart.

So it turns out that a couple of days ago, the long term guests who had been in a room next to the crack heads saw them across the road at a big box store, and they saw they had the wagon with them! Now I don't know how the long term guests knew about the wagon saga, I didn't ask for that detail, but I digress. Handyman/groundskeeper hopped in his Jeep and drove over to where they'd been spotted.

I don't know how this man who speaks basically no English did it, but he argued with them and got the freaking cart back. I'm told they didn't put up that much resistance, which is smart when you are confronted with stolen property. We need to get an air tag for this thing or something.

Anyway, this is likely to be my last post as I’m about to embark on a career as a psychic.

I know the phrase. You know the phrase. And boy do I love it when people try to use it in an argument, as this gentleman did. My response to that was the title of this tale.

Grumpy Gramps decided he wanted to tussle with me at 8AM in the morning. I was still groggy not only due to the early hour, but also because I was doing back-to-back shifts. So, you know, I was in a great mood to deal with his temper tantrum.

He was part of a wedding block and was having big feelings due to not being with most of the other rooms. And how'd that happen? Well, he added on a day prior to his original arrival and was squeezed into a mostly sold out hotel.

Our interaction was now taking place on what would've been his original arrival date. I remembered him giving grief to one of my colleagues the prior afternoon. So, when he started up with me, I immediately remembered.

"This is just ridiculous!", he exclaimed. "When I called before I got here, nobody told me this would happen! And then when I checked in yesterday, I couldn't get a straight answer!"

I gave a soft apology for any confusion, but did mention: "This is our first time speaking, so I know very little about your situation, sir. That said, since we were sold out last night, I can try to get you to a more ideal room but it won't be ready this morning."

He got more irate and barked back: "Yeah, nobody seems to know what's going on! And I'm NOT moving!" I paused for a moment and then calmly replied: "Well then, I'm not quite sure how else to help you if that's the case." This went over about as well as you think, leading him to loudly grumble: "I'm gonna have to write a letter about this to someone high up, because I'm not happy. I'm a customer, you know?!"

At that point, I was over it and said in the most monotone voice I could muster: "Everyone's a customer, sir."

His eyes widened and he barked: "Are you saying that the customer's not right?!" I replied: "Sir, that is not what I said. Please do not put words in my mouth. I'm trying to help you and you would rather argue. Now, you said you're not moving, so are we going to continue the check-in for your next reservation?"

He went mostly mute after that and simply finished off the check in. We were done momentarily and I handed him his keys. He mumbled a gruff: "Thank you." Before walking off, he did ask: "So which floor is the wedding party staying on?" I looked into it and as it turned out, there were at least one or two other rooms on the same floor he was. Everyone else was just one floor down. He nodded and walked off.

No repercussions or further issues came of this.

​

We had an in-house head housekeeper who worked at our property for seven years. She was the one who trained me when I first started working in housekeeping. I’ve since moved up to front desk manager, and over the years, we became very close. I genuinely considered her a friend, not just a coworker.

She and her sons were always around the property. I would cut their hair, attend their birthday parties, share meals with them, plan parties, etc. We had a relationship that went well beyond work, so I never expected things to end this way.

About two months ago, she told me she was planning on leaving. The owner had been underpaying her and was often argumentative with her. Honestly, she did a really good job, so I never understood why he treated her the way he did. I understood why she wanted to move on and find something better.

She ended up getting accepted for a new job, but it happened pretty quickly, and she wasn't able to give a full two weeks' notice. She told the staff that she was leaving three days before she actually left, but she didn't inform the owner until the day she was leaving and told him she would no longer be working here.

We actually threw her a going-away party, made her favorite food, and said our goodbyes. I wanted her to leave on a good note because, regardless of everything, she had been a huge part of my life and the property for seven years.

Before she left, I reminded her that she still owed over $500 in rent. She was also owed money in back pay because of the timing of payroll, and I told her to make sure she paid her rent before leaving. I explained that it would reflect badly on me if she didn't, especially because I was responsible for handling that payment, and I wasn't really supposed to allow her to fall behind in the first place.

The maintenance man and I were even planning to help get her to the hotel where she was going to stay before catching her Greyhound bus.

Then she left a day earlier than expected.

She didn't pay her rent, and she left her room in an absolutely disgusting state. I'm talking about a room that requires an extensive deep cleaning, and we're still working on getting it back into shape.

Now I'm sitting here with so many conflicting emotions. My boss has already yelled at me over the situation because he's upset that I allowed her to go those few days without paying. I understand that I have a responsibility as a manager, and I know the unpaid rent is an issue, but I feel like I was trying to help someone I genuinely cared about.

Neither she nor her son is responding to my texts or answering their phones.

I feel hurt, disappointed, guilty, and honestly a little stupid for trusting her as much as I did. I understand that she was unhappy here and wanted to move on, and I don't blame her for leaving a job where she felt she wasn't being treated fairly. But I never expected her to leave this way, especially after everything we shared outside of work.

Part of me feels betrayed because I thought our friendship meant more than this. Another part of me feels guilty because I'm the one left dealing with the consequences at work, and my boss is holding me responsible.

I don't know if I'm more upset about the money and the condition she left the room in, or the fact that someone I considered family could leave without even communicating with me.

Am I wrong for feeling this hurt?

Inspiration came from a recent post about VIP assistants. Last year we had a VIP guest who communicated entirely through his assistant.

Now, this isn't that unusual. VIPs at a high enough level have people to deal with the common folk for them. Some of these VIPs, however, should really look into replacing their assistants.

I had this assistant demanding all kinds of perks, including a guaranteed 11am early check-in, but here's the catch: the reservation was under a fake name and the assistant refused to tell us who the VIP was. After I told them no for the fifth time to a guaranteed 11am early check-in, the assistant finally pulled the "do you know who my boss is?!?" card, which filled me with the purest, evilest sense of joy, because it let me do this:

"According to this reservation, your boss is [insert fake name here]. If that isn't correct, please enlighten me."

That finally got the assistant to cough up their VIP boss' name. Plot twist: I still had no idea who he was and no, he did not get to check in at 11am.

Dude decided to give himself a 5pm late checkout and smoked in the room. I took great pleasure in charging a full night's room and tax + our $500 smoking fee for both mwahaha.

Got an odd call today. Here ya go:

Me: "Thank you for calling the hotel I work at, how may I assist you?"

Caller: "Yes I would like to know more about your holiday tea during Santa Clausia."

Me: *I must not be hearing her right* "Santa...Clausia?"

Caller: "Yes, Santa Clausia please."

Me: "I am unfamiliar with such a holiday, ma'am, may I ask if you are referring to Christmas?"

Caller: "Yes, Santa Clausia!"

At this point, yes is all I need to hear, so I hand her over to the restaurant. I never did figure out what Santa Clausia is...

I used to work at a hotel that catered to some pretty wealthy people. CEOs and business owners and the occasional guest who acted like owning a nice watch meant they owned the whole building lol. Some were lovely but others were absolute assholes. Especially when something didn't go their way. One thing I remember is how many of them had assistants handling everything. Bookings and room changes and arrival times.

Sometimes we'd deal with the assistant more than the actual guest. The annoying part was when someone called claiming to be an assistant and expected us to change things on the spot. They'd know the guest's name and booking details and act offended when we wanted to confirm anything, even though the the hotel policy asked every change for the VIP or SuperVIP to go through Kibu, their assistants still felt super offended by us not believing them. I remember one time when walking in a VIP guest stopped by the front desk to congratualte me for putting up with their assistant, and that he's glad we stuck to the policy no matter how big of an mean pos the assistant was, as they've had stuff happen and reservations gone in a second from prank calls or wrongdoers.

Why do some assistants act more entitled than theiir boss, is the one thing I'll never understand.

​

Tell me whether I'm crazy or is this normal please!

I have left hospitality this year, I thought for good. I have worked night audit for 7 years before, I was a single mum so I had so much more time. I switched to an office job, Mo-Fr 08 AM to 4 PM, ideal. And then my boss died.

I have noticed how much I miss not having to schedule appointments so it fits my working hours. I miss seeing my kid and she misses me. I have been thinking about going back to night audit, I never sleep for more than 6 hours so I would sleep when my kid is in school as I did before. Paycheck was also not bad, it was better than on my current work as I speak multiple languages, some of them are relatively niche, so guests were always either surprised or happy.

Does this make sense? Should I go back?

I apologise for any grammar mistakes, English is not my first language.

This isn’t really an issue but I’m curious if this is normal.

At my job, we are currently shut down for renovations and only have a few people working currently (me, the manager occasionally, and a few construction workers who stay at the hotel). Today, two of the construction workers got arrested and their truck was left in the hotel parking lot. In the truck bed were ten sheets of one-inch thick drywall that had been left there, each weighing about 70 lbs from my estimate. Once my manager got here, he had me help him move the drywall sheets. I have back issues (spinal fracture healed improperly so my left side is weak) and I’m also sick, so by the time we were done I was almost throwing up.

This is my first adult job so I’m wondering if this is normal and if I can expect more things like this?

Night auditor here. A dude stayed here with a girl, Rm 310. He kept coming and going half the night, don't know exactly why and where, but none of my biz. I'm just watching movies at the desk. Our doors are locked, so I kept opening the doors for him with my remote. There's a handicap button, but I'd rather open it remotely than hear people yank on the door and freak out that they're locked in.

At around 5:30 am he comes up and says "thanks for all you do, I just wanna give you a tip." I was like "I didn't really do anything, just opened the door lol" He said "no, just take this" He starts rummaging through his wallet, there is a wad of cash in there. I was thinking he'd give me a coupla bucks. Takes the whole wad and gives it to me...I'm like wtf? No, that's way excessive. He's like "no, I want you to take this." Hey, I'm not gonna say no twice lmao Counted...$150...

Literally 20 min later the doors open and this girl storms in and heads directly to the elevator. The doors unlock at 6am, so she just entered. At my hotel we don't have to ask where people are going, visiting or not. A moment later Rm 310 calls down, and the girl he was with says "there's someone knocking on our door" FUUUCKK...not a domestic situation...right before I leave...

As I'm taking the elevator up to sort things out, I see that there's no one at the door. I take the elevator down and see that girl that stormed in head to her car and drive off.

Question is...why did that dude give me a $150 tip? He didnt ask me to not let her in, or not tell the room number, or anything else. She already knew the number and such...soo